Quinnipiac U, including left to right, research associate Ariane Thompson, associate prof. of anthropology Jaime Ullinger, and prof. of diagnostic imaging Jerry Conlogue were x-raying the bones of Fortune, an African-American slave from the 1700's to find out as much as they can about him before he is buried in May. Mara Lavitt/New Haven Register3/11/13

HAMDEN -- A slave owned by a Waterbury bone surgeon in the 1800s, named Fortune, did not stop working for his owner after his death.

Dr. Preserved Porter did in fact preserve Fortune's skeleton, and used it to teach anatomy to medical students.

In May, Fortune's remains will finally be put to rest in the Waterbury cemetery next to St. John's Episcopal Church, where he was baptized in 1797.

First, however, anthropology faculty members and students at Quinnipiac University are gleaning as much information as they can, through X-rays and, soon, CT scans, to understand the slave's life and, perhaps, how he died.

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Fortune died in his late 40s or early 50s, according to anthropology professor Jaime Ullinger, who determined his approximate age of death Monday.

The story has a macabre side because, "After Fortune died, the doctor used him for teaching purposes; he was a bone surgeon," she said. Porter boiled Fortunes remains to preserve the bones.

"He used the bones to study human anatomy," said Marie Galbraith, retired director of the Mattatuck Museum, who has long advocated for Fortune's burial. "Other medical professors would go to Porter's office, which was in his home, to also study the bones."

The bones had been sent to Germany to be reattached (articulated), according to Gerald Conlogue, professor of the Diagnostic Imaging Program and co-director with Ullinger of Quinnipiac's Bioanthropology Research Institute. The skeleton was given to the Mattatuck Museum, which displayed it until 1970.

Connecticut did not abolish slavery until 1848, although the state provided for "gradual emancipation" in 1784, in which slaves born after a certain date would become free at age 25, later reduced to 21, according to www.slavenorth.com. (Importation of slaves into the state stopped in 1774.)

The skeleton, laid out Monday in a lab at Quinnipiac's Clarice L. Buckman Center, is almost complete, missing two ribs and bones from his hands and feet. He also has no teeth. Ullman said they determined Monday that Fortune had a fracture in his left hand that had healed.

"He's all apart so what we want to do is put him back together again" digitally, Conlogue said. X-rays were being taken of the skull Monday morning. The first vertebra beneath the skull is broken, but how that happened is unknown (the researchers doubt his broken neck caused his death).

In addition to the X-rays, the bones will be given CT scans at the Naugatuck Valley Radiological Association in Waterbury and a 3D printer will be used to make replicas of the bones.

Using clay-like materials, "with the skull we can do a facial reconstruction to see what he looked like in life," Conlogue said.

Looking at the bones, anthropologists can tell that Fortune was "a person who probably did a lot of heavy labor," Conlogue said. They can see where ligaments pulled hard on the bones; arthritic changes are also obvious. They've also gotten "an interesting look at how his teeth would have been," said Julianna Lupo, a junior from Wallingford.

Among the things that are known about Fortune is that he had a family. According to www.fortunestory.org, Fortune was probably born in the 1740s. He had a wife named Dinah, a son, Jacob, two daughters, Mira and Roxa. He also had an older son named Africa; where he was born and who his mother was is uncertain.

Fortune was baptized Dec. 20, 1797, and died in 1798. There was also a young man in the Porter home named Luke, whose relationship to Fortune is unknown.

Maxine Watts, chairwoman of the African-American History Project, said she had to be persuaded the time was right to bury Fortune's remains; the committee was divided. "He's a prime example of bones that never went into the ground," she said.

The ultimate goal was to try to determine where Fortune was born -- on a plantation or in Africa. However, "different ones feel that enough is enough and he has contributed in life and in death to society and has done his job," said Watts.

And technology has advanced enough that more information can be gleaned from the digital images.

Bob Burns, director of the Mattatuck Museum, said staff there also believed for a long time that Fortune's remains were an exhibit the museum should keep. "People have come around" to seeing Fortune "as a human and a person rather than an object in our museum," Burns said.

So once his bones are X-rayed and scanned, Fortune will be given a proper burial in the Riverside Cemetery, close to the Naugatuck River that he may have swum in during his life.